For HR Professionals

In the good old days, all Human Resource Professionals had to do was to "attract, retain and motivate" the right talent. Today you have to do more. Much more.

In this digital age, your role is critical as organisations risk becoming more hi-tech and less hi-touch. If you do nothing, your employees will soon be no different from the smart gadgets that many hold so dearly: Fast and efficient but detached and unfeeling.

HR is the gel that holds the organisation together. Though organisations are in business to make profits, your role as the conscience of the organisation will never change.

In a study by Silicon Valley-based business guru, John Hagel III, the average life expectancy of a company in the S&P 500 has dropped sharply from 75 years (in 1937) to 15 years today. As a socially responsible employer, merely providing employment is not enough. To be an employer that employees admire, you must also provide employability.

Though there are no guarantees in life, no one should have to sit through the heart wrenching retrenchment interview of "Sorry we have to let you go". Regardless of rank or grade, behind every employee, there is a family that they are personally responsible for.

Employability is not just job hunting, resume writing or interview skills. It is about helping your employees develop a survival mindset and resourceful resilience.

Employability is more than providing job relevant training programmes. It is about developing business acumen in your employees so that they understand the bigger picture of how your business actually works, and their specific role in profit generation.

In good times, employees with sound business acumen can help your organisation prosper. In bad times, business acumen becomes their competitive advantage when they career transit. They would know how best to pitch themselves to a new job because they know how bosses think.

When you have no choice but to let them go, they will thank you instead of curse you, because you have trained them well in business acumen and help them face the future with confidence. And as HR, you can't lead them up the mountain without being up there yourself!